Christopher Hill

A gripping, extraordinary account of England in an era of revolutionary turmoil. Within the English revolution of the mid-seventeenth century, which resulted in the triumph of the Protestant ethic—the ideology of the propertied class—there threatened another, quite different, revolution. Its success might have established communal property, a far wider democracy in political and legal institutions, might have disestablished the state...

The classic life of Cromwell by one of Britain's great radical historians. A nuanced biography of Oliver Cromwell, breaking down Cromwell's life into different parts: fenland farmer and humble backbencher; stalwart of the good old cause and the New Model Army; key figure of the Commonwealth; and finally, Lord Protector. Hill leads the reader unsentimentally through Cromwell's life, from his...

John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is one of the most important works of English literature. Translated into more than 200 languages, it once rivalled the Bible in popularity in the English-speaking world. In A Turbulent, Seditious and Factious People, Christopher Hill reassesses the well-known author to recover Bunyan's significance as a preacher—a man whose nonconformist religion led him into conflict with...

Since 1945, Britain has had to cope with a slow descent from international primacy. The decline in global influence was intended to be offset by the United Kingdom’s entry into Europe in 1975, with the result that national foreign policy came to rest on the two pillars of the Atlantic alliance and the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the...

In 1961 Christopher Hill first published what has come to be acknowledged as the best concise history of the period, The Century of Revolution. Stimulating, vivid and provocative, his graphic depiction of the turbulent era examines ordinary English men and women as well as kings and queens. Hill argued that the Civil War was driven by the conflict between the...

In this, the last book published during his lifetime, renowned historian of the English Revolution Christopher Hill uses the literary culture of the seventeenth century to explore the immense social changes of the period, as well as the expressions of liberty, the law and the hero-worship of the outlaw defiance. As well as chapters on gypsies and vagabonds, Hill analyses...